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Terran Confederation
"The first World War was a failure of the Imperialistic Monarchies, the second World War was a failure of the capitalist democracies and the third World War was a failure of the socialist utopias the previous two regimes should have prepared us for. While I will not say that there will never be a war between good and honest men and women again, it is my strong belief that this Confederation of States will endure." First Confederate President Anton Dziberazik, inaugural address in Brussels. Founded as a European-Asian-American union after the devastation left by World War Three, the Confederation of States (later renamed Terran Confederation) was the de facto super-power on Earth (later Terra) prior to the Protectorate invasion. Coordination provided by the Confederation of States later brought in multiple other nations during the invasion to join the Pan-national entity. As the new space race began in earnest after the Protectorate Invasion, the Terran Confederation became the one voice for humanity among the stars. Political separation of powers The Confederation is split in 4 branches of government, under the oversight of the Confederate Internal Affairs division. While each branches has its own rules and regulations, each of them holds the balance of power against the 3 others, making sure that none of them can stir the Confederation in a direction on its own. The first branch is the Supreme Court of the Confederation, which is represented by 9 Supreme Court judges who are elected for non-renewable 10 year terms. Those judges are elected from the pool of judges and lawyers working in the Confederation, and they are allowed to campaign for the position for a maximum of 1 months. The terms of the various judges are staggered over the 10 years, so technically 1 judge is elected every year, if not for a destitution, death or other extreme circumstances. While a Supreme Court judge follows his elected position, if the judge is sitting on a trial while his or her term, he remains on that trial until its conclusion. The Supreme Court generally deals with constitutional matters and trials brought to them by the CIA. The second branch is the unelected Council of Peers, which is represented by 5 hereditary or religious political leaders. The Council is the final arbitrator of any laws or bill being passed by the two other houses and rely heavily on the Supreme Court to mediate their decisions. The Council also has the power to dissolve any of the three other branches of government and call a new election for each of them. While the only real necessity to sit on the Council is to be part of a monarchy, the Councilmembers are expected to be well-versed in law, economy, military affairs and social issues. The Councilmember sit on the Council until death or until they abdicate their role to another member that they select. The current members are the sitting King of Britain and the Anglosphere, his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan, his Holiness the Catholic Pope or Patriarch of Constantinople (which represents all religions in regards to the Council, and the agreement between the two Churches is that their role on the Council is exchanged between the two every time the sitting member is replaced), the Sultan of Damascus and the Emperor of Brazil. The agreement of who sits on the Council was done during the founding of the Confederation, with the only member which is really more "mobile" being the position of the Emperor of Brazil, who was once held by the King of Thailand and the King of Spain. Technically, each of the Council member could be replaced by any other peer, but the King of Britain and Japanese Emperor position are basically guaranteed by the fact they represent a major portion of the Terran population, and the religious position of the Pope and Patriarch is universally regarded as the protector of culture and religion in the government. This position is sometimes threatened by the Sultan of Damascus, but the Sultan is mainly viewed as the representative of the Terran Muslim and Zoroastrian population. The third branch is the Confederate Senate, which is led by the President of the Confederation. The President is directly elected by the population for a 5 year term, renewable once if he wins the second election. The Senate itself is bound by similar rules of 5 year terms which can be renewed once. Each country and Colonial Body is allowed to elect 2 Senators, who will represent their constituents in the Senate. You must reside in the country or Colonial Body to be elected and be at least 30 years of age. While most Senators are part of a political party, their allegiance should (the key word being should) be to their constituents first and foremost. While being voted out of the Senate is always a possibility, both the Congress and Council of Peers can force a by-election to be done if the Senator is not viewed as capable or supporting his constituents. Senators can sponsor bills, draft laws and request Constitutional Review, and many of them sit on various committees where they study situations, bills and laws. Declarations of War from the Confederation are put through the Senate, similar to having to sign peace treaty. The final branch is the Confederate Parliament, which is led by the Prime Minister of the Confederation. The Prime Minister is the leader of the party with the most seats in the Parliament, which is elected once every 4 years. There are no term limits for members of Parliament. Roughly put, there is 1 member of parliament for each 250 000 citizens in the Confederacy (generally rounded up) who are proportionnaly elected during the general election. As an example, if the Liberal Democratic Party has 22.1% of the votes, they should have roughly 22% of the Parliament and if they are the party with the majority of seats, their leader will be named Prime Minister. Alliances between parties are extremely common to create more powerful "voting blocks" or to gain a majority as long as their alliance stands. The Prime Minister has to have the confidence of the President and the Council of Peers to sit as well, so even if a large group decide to form an alliance, it is possible that their leader will not be named as Prime Minister anyways. In a similar manner to the senate, the Parliament can sponsor the creation of new laws and bills, and they are responsible for the drafting of the Confederate Budget. Division of power between Prime Minister and President Officially, both the President and Prime Minister have similar levels of power, as they can both break the tie in the other house if necessary and is the final arbitrator of bills brought into their house of government. In the end, however, the Prime Minister is regarded as the face of Confederation in international affairs, meeting with Imperial, Union, Baal'Ken and So'Dar leaders to negotiate treaties and discuss international matters. The President, being the leader of the "regional based" Senate, is the de facto leader of the Confederation in regards to internal affairs, travelling to colonies and countries to meet local leaders and make sure all is well within the Confederation. In the end, neither of them truly has omnipotent power as the other can petition the Council of Peers to disregard any recommendation put forth by the other. While overall bureaucracy seems high in this form of the government, it seems to ensure that there are permanent checks and balances between all levels of government and that no single organisation can have power over the entire government. The Confederate Internal Affairs The fear of corruption, which was one of the major causes of the third world war, keeps the Terran Confederation on their toes, but it led to the creation of the most efficient government body in the Confederation, the Confederate Internal Affairs (CIA, not to be confused with the pre-Confederation Central Intelligence Agency). The most paranoid members of the Confederation sometimes depict the CIA as a shadowy, inquisition-like organisation (a few movies were created on that premise), but the CIA functions basically like any law-enforcement agency in the Confederation, only that they are tasked with routing out corruption and making sure the government, law-enforcement agencies and the military remain fully free of outside influences and focused on helping the citizens of the Confederation. Anti-lobbying laws are the thing the CIA most often are tasked with enforcing, forcing corporations, political action groups and social activism group in the open and making sure they do not influence the political process directly. Investigations towards Colonial governors abusing their power and position have been frequent as well. In the military, Political Officers (often nicknamed "Commissars" by the troops) are tasked with making sure there is no political corruption in the line of command and that the troops are well-motivated for their task at hand. Commissars can remove any part of the military from command position if they are deemed unfit for duty, and most commissars have the equivalent rank to a Colonel or Cruiser Captain in case they need to take control of an outfit when the commanders are compromised. Political officers are rarely well regarded in the military, but some of them actively serve with their crew, leading by example rather than simply being a judicial threat. Political parties of the Confederation Liberal Democrat Party A center-right party that often comes in power with skillful alliances and political influence. The LDP is viewed as a monolithic political party with a lot of clout throughout the Confederation, their leaders always being influential even when not in power. The party still espouses a lot of liberal ideologies and prefers to maintain the current status quo welfare state and often tries to sponsor bills which advances the protection of the existing assets and rights of the people of the Confederation. Socialist Alliance Party A left-leaning party which gets a lot of votes from fairly populous regions of Terra and well-established colonies, the SAP often holds the balance of power in either the Senate or the Parliament. Generally, their leaders are viewed as great orators and visionaries, even though some of their ideas are over the top for the current wealth and power of the Confederation. The SAP often tries to increase the power of the state in regards and sometimes try to curtail some of the rights of the people in the favour of the global happiness or safety of the nation. Republican Reform Party A right-leaning party which gets a significant amount of the vote, even holding presidential or prime ministerial power at time, the RRP believes in reforming the Confederation to its original state and then model it back to a form of political union similar to the American or French Republic of pre-WW3 era. The RRP often votes toward an increase of power to the individual or corporations and to reduce the size of the state, reducing the welfare state to reduce overall taxes. Chinese Communist Party A political party that is mainly represented by people of East-Asian descent, the CCP used to be just an arm of the local Chinese Communist Party, but evolved into a party which serves the interest of the Asiatic people of Terra and the colonies. While there are multiple regional parties, the CCP is the only party which went from regional to international by wanting to represent the rights of a group of people directly. Many Colonial Bodies with a majority of East-Asians vote for the CCP to the Senate but for someone else in Parliament. As such, the CCP is overrepresented in the Senate compared to the Parliament. Christian Democratic Union Party A left-leaning party, the Christian Democratic Union is a political party which garners a large number of votes due to their position as a religious party. The party itself often votes by following religious doctrine exposed in the Terran Holy Bible (the Christian holy book), which is quite left leaning except for some strange things, including prohibition of abortion, the sanctity of marriage and protection of the religious rights. The CDU is more popular in South American nations along with Colonial Bodies affiliated with that region of Terra. New Georgia is also seen as a bastion of the CDU in regards to Parliamentary votes. Environmentalist Defense Party (The Greens) A far left political party, the Greend views pretty much all technological advancement as a danger to nature and want to lower the footprint of mankind on various planets. They are very opposed to any form of terraforming and view the colonial efforts of mankind as a danger to galactic biodiversity. They also heavily promote various far-left agenda, many of which are very poorly regarded by the CIA and other political bodies. A lot of EDP members get arrested and destituted due to their actions. Conservative Alliance Party (The Whigs) A far right political party, the Whigs are basically the RRP pushed to the extreme, wanting to restore local political power to the different nations of Earth and use the Colonies as locales to exploit to enrich local powers. Fairly poorly regarded and often ridiculed, the Whigs always get a few people elected and often support bills that curtail the power of the Confederation or increase personal liberty. Minor parties that still have significant presence Libertarian Party An extremely minor party that always has at least a presence in the Parliament, the Libertarian Party is basically a laissez-faire capitalist organisation which speaks very loudly even though they have so little power. Many of the ideas promoted by the Libertarian are espoused by the more major parties and the few additional votes in parliament they provide are sometimes key for a motion to pass. Neo-Democratic Military Assistance Party The NDMA is a party which promotes military service and the military lifestyle to a major extent. While not influential on their own, the few members of parliament they have often discuss at long length the lack of budget attributed to the military and veterans affair. Socialist Communist Party An ultra-far left party, the Socialist Communist Party would rather want the Confederation crumble then make it work, all in a hope for a Communist revolution. Their members are often embroiled in international crisis, a lot of them funnelling money and manpower to the Korrenian regime, which they view as a first step to international revolution. Gnomish Social Alliance Party The GSAP is a minor party which promotes the rights and freedoms of the gnomish population within the Confederation. They have a fairly good reputation and align very often with either the LDP or SAP, but want to retain their independence as a political entity in the name of their gnomish constituent. It is unusual that the first gnomish senator was not from this Party. The Rising Dawn The Rising Dawn is an ultra-far right party which advocates Terran supremacy and isolationism rather than participation in the global community. They also advocate for an increase in military spending along with the withdrawal of the Confederation from all non-Terran treaties with foreign entities. Needless to say, their voting base is rather small. Category:Terran Confederation